Dearborn, Michigan

Dearborn is a city of nearly 98,000 people located in the Metro Detroit metropolitan area and Wayne County, Michigan in the United States. The city is the hometown of Henry Ford and the world headquarters of the Ford Motor Company, and the site of a University of Michigan campus as well as Henry Ford Community College.

History

The Dearborn area was first settled by Europeans in 1786. The village of Dearborn was established in 1836, named after patriot Henry Dearborn, a general in the American Revolution and Secretary of War under President Thomas Jefferson. Its origins as a city trace back to a January 1929 consolidation vote which established its present-day borders by merging Dearborn and neighboring Fordson (previously known as Springwells) which feared being absorbed into Detroit. The area between the two towns was, and still remains in part undeveloped. This, once farm land, was bought by Henry Ford who built his estate and Ford World Headquarters on it. Later developments in this corridor were the Ford airport, (later converted to the Ford test track), other Ford administrative and development facilities, The Henry Ford village and museum and Fair Lane, the Henry Ford Centennial Library and the Dearborn Civic Center. Some of the land remains open as of 2005 and is planted with sunflowers and often in Henry Ford's favorite soybeans, presumably for property tax reduction purposes. The crops are never harvested.

Related Topics:
1786 - Village - 1836 - Henry Dearborn - Secretary of War - President - Thomas Jefferson - 1929 - The Henry Ford - Fair Lane - As of 2005 - Sunflower - Soybean

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Dearborn was known nationally for its de facto racial segregation under Mayor Orville L. Hubbard, whose 36 year tenure ended in 1978. Hubbard became the most famous segregationist north of the Mason-Dixon line and openly admitted to allowing the use of intimidation tactics against African-American families looking to move to Dearborn. This unsubtle policy is, in part, responsible for the minute black population in Dearborn today.

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